The present invention relates to a mounting arrangement for power semiconductors, said arrangement including a cooling system which uses a cooling fluid.
It is known through French patent application No. 75 30 527 on Oct. 6, 1975, by the assignee, to constitute columns of diodes or of thyristors immersed in a fluorinated hydrocarbon and contained in a casing. These columns, disposed in a star configuration, are installed between two end plates disposed at either end of a central tie rod screwed at both its ends by two nuts which provide an overall pressure on the columns of diodes and of thyristors which is sufficient to provide close contact between the components in each column. The cover of the casing is made of insulating material and includes firstly threaded rods to support the set of columns by one of the end plates and secondly a plurality of terminals to feed the columns parallel to these terminals. The device has, however, some disadvantages. The clamping common to the three columns imposes the use of washers which exert a great load which represents the sum of the loads of each column. The circuit is tricky to form when the loads are not identical for each column. Further, when a semiconductor is replaced, the two columns not concerned by the replacement remain in an unstable balanced position without any mechanical stability throughout the whole operation. Lastly, the input and output power connections are installed outside the bulk of the columns of semiconductors. This causes a loss of space on the cover of the casing and therefore a limitation of the number of supply terminals.